Based on the number of flights leaving Amsterdam's Schipol airport, and the timing of his Facebook status, it is feared he was on the fated flight.

Malaysian Airlines has confirmed that flight it lost contact with flight MH17 in Ukrainian airspace around 50km from the border with Russia.

It is feared all 295 people on board have been killed.

Footage of thick black smoke billowing from the ground has been published on the Life-Marie YouTube channel claiming to show the scene of the crash.

Earlier today, Russian jets shot down a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter plane that was on military operations over the east of Ukraine.

It was the first time Ukraine had directly accused Russia of using air power in the war.

Government forces are fighting to quell a pro-Russian separatist rebellion.

In a previous attack on a military transporter, which it said was launched from Russia, Kiev was unable to specify whether it came from land-based missiles or airborne.

Russia's defence ministry declined to comment on the accusation.

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The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the plane was brought down on Wednesday night near Amvrosiyivka, about about 9 miles from the border with Russia, by rockets which hit it in the tail as it wheeled away from the border.

"It is likely that this was carried out by air-to-air rockets from the Russian airforce which were patrolling the border in a pair," the ministry said in a statement on its website.

The pilot safely ejected, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the National Defence and Security Council, told journalists.

The downing of the SU-25 came against a background of increasingly strident charges of direct Russian involvement in the three and a half month conflict in which the pro-Western government in Kiev is fighting to put down a rebellion by separatists who want a future in Russia.

In March, a Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared with 239 people on board.

It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean but despite extensive searches no wreckage has ever been found.